Anyone catch the documentary Somm? Its on Netflix and it follows a bunch of dudes that are training for their Master Sommelier certification over the course of a year or something. Pretty crazy that you have to be able to taste a wine and within a few seconds, identify what kind, what country, and what vinyard it came from.
Now I know to a point, there is some expertise in learning all that stuff, but there has to be at least a 10% of that being a guess. No way could someone get like 20/20 wines correct for the last two.
Maybe not Vineyard, but country and region? For sure. Its something you work at, but I have a coworker who is an obsessive wine nerd, and he can do it. We quizzed him at a restaurant one time. And these guys doing it as their job and that certification is hard as fuck to acquire.
Red is the only way to go, I drink Yellowtail Big Bold Red they made it screw top for some reason but at 10 bucks for the big bottle it is a good deal and very drinkable on any occasion. One of the guys from that Somm film started a company called Somm Select recently. That was a great documentary.
Explains the reasoning behind using a cork or screw cap. My take away is its easier controlling quality and cheaper than cork.
My husband and I belong to one wine club in Napa (we live in San Francisco. This is restrained). It's a family owned winery run by the crotchety old patriarch, 77 if he is a day, who personally conducts each and every tour and tasting. He's an engineer by trade and at least 50% of said tour focuses on his cost structure. Woe to the poor unfortunate soul who shows up without a reservation. And don't make this your fourth winery of a day of tasting, you need to be in possession of all your faculties to follow his demanding and detailed instructions. He WISHES he could bottle with screw tops. Not only are they cheaper than cork, they're scientifically superior in every way. They've gotten associated with cheap shitty wine, and so he can't sell his wine at a profit with screw tops. Fucking fantastic wine by the way. His unoaked Chardonnay (thought you didn't like Chardonnay? Think again) will change your life. I feel like a goddamn snob in this conversation for saying so, but his cab is $35 if not more and I say thank you for the privilege of getting it so cheap.
I think I've posted or repped here 3 times in 10 yrs. (obviously including old board) without having some level of vino in my system. I sob when I hear American prices, but I also cringe deeply at what you're calling wine. I'll easily drink cheap(ish) white, but red needs to have some level of quality. Our own Nett Daddy treated me to a wonderful dinner, including the best two bottles of red wine I've had to this day. Recently, a dear friend, who is thaaaat close to being a Sommelier, has been chastising me about my wine choices. A few weeks ago he caught me at the liquor store with my weekly armful of wine bottles and halfway across the room yelled "Woman, put those back now". I respectfully turned and placed them back on the shelves. He took me around the store and chose bottles with a slightly higher price point ($2-4). Holy, what a difference. They all still came in under $20 each. There is no point in telling you what to drink, because every liquor store, province and state carry a different selection and our palates differ. However, I am saying to try something slightly higher shelf and definitely asking people who know their shit. As an aside, I'm tempted to crash Net Daddy's pad, because he's living in wine country and able to get delicious, nutritious wine in a box for next to nothing, compared to what I'll pay for it here in bottles, just hours drive away. It's almost criminal. I think we need to re-visit the trampoline party idea.
Trying to cut back on drinking, but I love to just have 1 cider or glass of wine a night. And goddamn Amazon Prime staring me in the face with that wine aerator and every other silly wine accessory. If I didn't have a gf that would clearly explain to me why I don't need all this stuff, I'd have ordered it all.
Scent of fresh tennis ball. Yeah that was a really interesting one. Definitely worth watching. To counter all of the Somm stuff, there's this: Why Wine Tasting is Bullshit. Worth a read, but don't skip the last paragraph. My parents really like their wine, so I just grew up with it. I used to help my dad make wine when I was little. Spent countless hours hunched over with my hands stained yellow picking dandelion flowers in the springtime- they can make a nice dry white wine. At last, starting when I was 18 or so I'd get a wine glass during holiday meals. Now there's bottles open any time the family is together. Personally I typically drink beers but I like to have a red or two on hand. I don't hesitate to participate in wine tastings at my local booze store and may pick up a $10-15 bottle based on those selections, just going by my palate and not the label. I find myself choosing some recipes based on the involvement of wine or not, since that's a great excuse to open up yet another bottle to enjoy while you cook. Seems like you can find some decent boxed wine these days but when I see a box of Franzia or Gallo today I immediately have flashbacks of chugging it straight out of the bag at college parties. We've brought the bags on camping trips before- they're heavy but pack pretty well. Also, yet another +1 for aerators here... my family did a blind taste test with a few different reds and pretty much all voted in favor of the aerated wine.
The two worst hangovers I ever had in college were wine related. The first was when, in a furious panicked pregame, I filled a 12 oz juice bottle with Franzia before going to a frat party I knew was going to require a distinct lack of sobriety. I chugged it...twice. The next day I felt like someone ran my head over with a dump truck. Few years later, we got into a REAL big Carlo Rossi kick. We used to get the Sangria that tasted like juice. We'd pop in ice cubes, forget we were drinking REALLY shitty wine, and go to town. I woke up for a Thursday morning class after many glasses of it the night before, after a party at our place, and was still drunk. By mid morning, the hangover arrived and I nearly threw up while lounging on my coach watching TV.
I was going a completely different direction and imagined lounging in abject luxury. Pip pip and all that.
Paying it forward: Someone here, and I can't remember who, turned me onto Bota Box. It's good, and $16 for a 3-bottle can't be beat in my zip code. Serious Eats even did a taste test: http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2013/01/b ... eview.html I agree the Old Vine Zin is the best.
My favorite wines overall for quality and value are the Save Me San Francisco wines, a company launched by Train (the rock group). http://www.savemesanfranciscowineco.com/index.php All of the varieties are very good. The Drops of Jupiter (red blend, mostly Syrah) is a great wine, and at less than $10 a bottle it is outstanding.
I forgot about this until today when I was just there, but Costco's Kirkland brands of wine are pretty decent as well. $10 for a 1.5L bottle, and it's actually got a pretty good flavor to it. They also, at least here in Ohio, have a pretty good selection of non brand-owned labels as well. Considering that they're the largest seller of wine in the U.S., they are easily one of the better priced places as well.